Four times a year, every three months, Apple announces its earnings for the previous quarter. With the tech titan expected next month to tell the world how many iPhones it sold over the prior three months, at least one analyst sees good news for stockholders in the near future. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, a name quite familiar with our readers, expects Apple to raise its dividend on April 23rd, when the numbers are released. At the same, the analyst sees Apple increasing the number of shares being repurchased by the company. Both moves are considered positive for stockholders, although Munster cautions potential Apple investors that the current stock price already has the dividend hike and higher share buyback already baked in.

Munster believes that Apple's revenue for the March quarter will be on the high side of the company's expectations at $43.5 billion. Apple said that this figure would be between $42 billion and $44 billion. He sees the top line number falling short in the June quarter, but he says that no one will care as they look ahead to Apple's new products to be released in the second half of the year. But this is where Munster's expectations diverge with those of Wall Street investors.

The analyst says that his meetings with Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds and well-heeled investors, have shown him that these big buyers of Apple's stock have low sales expectations for the Apple iPhone 6, and new product categories (like an Apple iWatch). Munster thinks that this thinking is all wrong, but does present a great situation for Apple investors. If the next-gen iPhone, with a possible 4.7 inch screen, takes sales away from large-screened Android models, or the iWatch becomes a hit, Apple's shares should react bullishly. And the worse case scenario, says Munster, is that sales of Apple's next-gen iPhone merely meet expectations, and the stock remains flat.

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Making it bigger won't help if that's the only draw. They need to reinvent themselves. Shadowing Android's moves by making a larger screen is a step in the right direction, but still probably is not enough! They need to tie into the desktop like MS is doing.

shadowing androids moves?
Okay now apple can't make a bigger phone because android already did that... that is such a ridiculous statement
Making a larger phone was obvious. Just because they didn't jump on it as soon as possible doesn't mean they are shadowing androids moves.
There is a great benefit to waiting this long.
Many android users will switch back to iphone simply because it will now have a bigger screen. - I personally will carry a bigger iphone and an android...
And many of them would have switched anyway if the screen were bigger because they were probably tired with apples product.
Look how many billions of dollars they are making
it is hilarious how many phone arena viewers are blinded by their evaluation of apple simply because they are disinterested in their product because they represent the smallest fraction of smartphone users

Yeah, that iPad, what a joke! I wanted a netbook! And the A7's double performance gains are clearly smoke and mirrors. And the MacBook Air -- I mean, who buys slim and light laptops with no DVD drive! And as for the trash can Mac Pro, well nobody wants a smaller, quieter, faster workstation with a uniquely engineered cooling core when they can have a big ol' box with lots of noisy fans! Yeah!!1

my gf has an iPhone 5 and is literally annoyed by the small screen specially when she looks at my Galaxy Mega her iPhone really looks like a toy .. and she told me if the ip6 doesn't come with a bigger screen like her mum's phone (S4) she will not change her cellphone .. they don't have to go for 6" but at least 4.7" ... The small screen is the reason why I quit iOS .. I miss it, but hey we're in 2014 now .. 4" is bad ..

I own several phones, amongst them an iPhone 5S. However, Apple needs to make some substantial and subtle changes if they want to remain competitive, in this highly competitive business. Seven years later, still can't play multiple music formats, such as flac; can't lock my sms app, without jailbreak, something other OS are doing out of the box; cut the iTunes umbilical; they refuse to add another radio to the Verizon variant, can't talk and surf; and can't mirror content of phone in browser. Get it together Apple or you can join BB and HTC funerals.

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